


Sugar & Oak

by aderyn



Series: Balsam and Birch [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Autumn, Healing, John is a Very Good Doctor, Memories, Molly is a Very Good Teacher, Nature, Nature Magic, Tea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-02
Updated: 2013-10-02
Packaged: 2017-12-28 04:43:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/987799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Absence will dog you. War will dog you.</p>
<p>One more remedy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sugar & Oak

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Snow Queen](https://archiveofourown.org/works/752877) by [faerymorstan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/faerymorstan/pseuds/faerymorstan). 



> Cleansing and acorn brittle for [Jude.](http://archiveofourown.org/users/wiggleofjudas/pseuds/wiggleofjudas)

 

You make the tea like this, like this:

_Oak and arrow, alder and ash._

_You bend it; you burn it; you burn it; you pray._

For what is not yet called a miracle.

But is.  
  
 *****

Hello, Molly says to the wind-stirred morning, sees John coming up the path to the cottage, the river Baker in the channels on his face. It's been a year; it's been two; it’s been three. War will dog you. Absence will dog you.  When the memories grow too great, when the chemistry crackles kitchenward with too much ferocity, when Sherlock inches to the ledges of boredom, when the pains are harder to hear, and to heal.

Well then.

A cleansing.

*****

You make it like this, Molly says.

Brushes the sleeve-caught hair of the tom.

Sets on the table a whole grove.

_Oak and arrow, alder and ash._

_You break it; you burn it; you blend it; you pray._

She learnt it.

John learns it.

Their hands smell of bark. 

The saccharide of fall.

*****

Sherlock sits at their kitchen table.

John sits at their kitchen table.

They touch hands once, twice.

Three times to send off the dark.

They drink it together with sugar.

_Oak and arrow, alder and ash._

_Take all the absence; take all the war._

_Cleanse all the bullets, the blood and the bone._

**Author's Note:**

> [Arrowroot](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curcuma_angustifolia)   
> [Arrowwood](http://www.arborday.org/treeguide/treeDetail.cfm?ID=171)


End file.
